The Dutch schoolchildren, more than 800 of them, held aloft bunches of flowers, whispered the names inscribed on the white headstones before them, then gently deposited their bouquets on the graves of 1,756 British and Polish airborne troops who dropped from the sky 65 years ago, fought a bitter ten-day battle and were killed at Arnhem.

More than 10,000 people packed the hallowed war cemetery at Oosterbeek yesterday to commemorate the heroism of the British 1st Airborne Division and the 1st Independent Polish Parachute Brigade.

The annual memorial service was a moving tribute to those who lost their lives in Operation Market Garden, the doomed attempt to shorten the Second World War by seizing the bridges across the Rhine and racing along a narrow corridor to Berlin. It was also a testament to the enduring friendship between the veterans and the Dutch civilians of Arnhem and nearby villages who suffered deportation, murder and a terrible winter of starvation after the Allies abandoned the costly operation and withdrew on September 25.

Led by Sir James Cleminson, about 125 men, all in their eighties, were joined by scores of other veterans who travel to Arnhem each year to commemorate the only major British defeat in the second half of the war.

If ever there was a corner of some foreign field that is forever England, it is Arnhem. Everywhere there were signs of the battle and of the friendship that has grown up with Britain and its soldiers. As the memorial stone outside the museum to the airborne forces states: “You took us then into your homes as fugitives and friends: we took you forever into our hearts. This strong bond will continue long after we are all gone.”

But those veterans who are not gone are still honoured for their extraordinary endurance both at the famous bridge — now called John Frost Bridge, after the British colonel who held it longer than anyone had expected — and in the perimeter at Oosterbeek where the British defended an ever-smaller strip of land until forced to slip away across the Rhine on September 25, 1944.

Elsewhere in Nijmegen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands attended the commemorations yesterday, as did the American commanders General David Petraeus and General Stanley McChrystal, who are currently overseeing the Afghanistan campaign and who are attached to the two American airborne divisions, the 101st and the 82nd, that landed in 1944 at Eindhoven and Nijmegen.

All weekend there were wreath-laying ceremonies, church services, receptions and fervent displays of gratitude to the veterans, their wives, widows, sons and daughters who come on the annual pilgrimage. All along the main road of Oosterbeek flags fluttered from houses, shops and lampposts. Hundreds of young British and Dutch men re-enacted the wartime events dressed in period uniforms and the maroon berets of the troops. Hundreds of historic military vehicles cruised the streets as crowds lined up to cheer.

On Saturday a thousand paratroopers dropped on Ginkel Heath, one of the original drop zones, with 60 Germans among them. The German presence elsewhere, however, was very low-key. For the first time, the German Ambassador to the Netherlands was invited to lay a wreath in Arnhem, and the Mayor of Dachau, twinned with Oosterbeek, also attended ceremonies. But no German was on the bridge yesterday for the special service to commemorate the heroic resistance of Colonel Frost and his men.

The remaining Arnhem veterans are hoping to pass on the baton to the next generation and already the links have been forged between the families that host the veterans and their children. The commemorations have now been dubbed the “bridge to the future” — but they will forever be remembered in Britain as a tribute to those who tried to go “a bridge too far”.

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